Connection-registering device for telephones.



'D. S. HULFISH.

CONNECTION REGISTERING DEVICE FOR TELEPHONES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 23,1906.

Patented Jan. 25, 1910.

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UNITE STATES PATENT OFFTGE.

DAVID S. HULFISI-I, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MOMEEN & MILLER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A COPARTNERSHIP.

CONNECTION-REGISTERING DEVICE FOR TELEPHONES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 25, 1910.

Application filed May 23, 1906. Serial No. 318,323.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, DAVID S. l'lULFl'SI-I, a citizen of the United States of kmerica, and residing at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful ID'IPI'OVQIIIQllt in Connection- Registering Devices for Telephones, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to telephone registers, and particularly to that class of such registers wherein the register for a given telephone substation is located at the substation and has electrical features in connection with the registering functions whereby it is made operative or moperative in response to certain predetermined central otlice or line conditions.

The object of telephone registers of this class usually is to register only successful calls, or calls terminating in conversations or connections, and not to register unsuccessful calls. My invention involves this method of selective registering, and provides for it a system of cooperating electrical and mechanical functions whereby the registering of the successful calls, and of the successful calls only, is accomplished without any special effort or attention whatever on the part of any telephone patron or on the part of any central office telephone operator, beyond that given to any ordinary flat-rate connection.

The system of my invention is adapted for use upon party lines, providing as it does a register which is located at the telephone substation and which registers the successful calls of that substation telephone without being affected in any way by the use of theparty line by any other stations which may exist upon the same line.

Eight figures accompany this description, in which,-

Figure l is a side view of the magnet and escapement parts of a device according to my invention; Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic front view of a register according to my invention, showing also the substation telephone circuits, and the central otlice circuits associated with the line; Fig. 3 is a section on the line A of Fig. 1, showing the escapement elements of the device of Figs. 1 and 2; Fig. 4 is a cord circuit of the central oflice, adapted for connecting the line of Fig. 2 to other telephone lines of the central otlice; Fig. 5 shows diagrammatically the condition of the register upon beginning a successful call; Fig. (5 shows the step in a successful call which succeeds Fig. 5; Fig. 7 shows the condition of the register during the conversation period of a successful call, and Fig. 8 shows the conditions attendant upon attempting a call upon a party line where the party line is already being used by another substation telephone, the conversation of a successful call being in progress.

in the device of my invention here illustrated, the work required magnetically of the current over the telephone line is reduced to a minimum, the work of moving the wheels of the counting train and the setting of the parts of the register against their respective spring tensions being done by the downward movement of the telephone switch hook lever, the work done electromagnetically from the central oilice being reduced to the movement of a pair of teeth in an escapement device whereby the register may be permitted to record one unit upon its counting train on the next movement of the hook lover, or whereby such recording is prohibited by improper movement of the escapement teeth; further, a device of maximum reliability is provided by eliminating from it all electrical contacts, that feature of telephone equipment being the feature most likely to cause tronble and expense in maintenance.

The device chosen as illustrating my invention consists, as shown in Fig. 2, of a counting train 1 with an associated ratchet and pawl, the pawl of the device being mounted upon a motor arm 2 pivotally sustained at 3, propelled upward by the spring 4i and drawn downward by the link 5, which link is pivoted upon the switch hook lever and passes loosely through the motor arm 2, engaging that arm by its upset end. or head 6; the arm 2 projects at its end toward the magnet of the device, and has a triangular projection 7 downward. The magnet of the device consists of two cores 8 and 9, a permanent magnet 10 and an armature 11, the armature being centered by centering springs, diagrannnatically shown as pressing independently upon its upper surface; the armature l1 bears rigidly attached to it an extension arm 12, the arm 12 carrving two escapen'ient teeth 13 and 14: adapted to .1 engage alternatively the end of the motor arm 2. The helices of th magnet of the register are connected in series with the telephone speech elements of the substation telephone, so that current flowing through the speech transmitting elements may also flow through the helices of the register magnet; this specific connection is not necessary, it being necessary only that the cores of the magnet of the register be energized when a current flows over the line circuit, and that they be energized in a polarity corresponding to the direction of the current so flow- 111g.

In Fig. 4 is shown a cord circuit of a well known type, and of a type adapted to operate in connection with the line circuits of the jack of Fig. 2. The cord circuit of Fig. 4 is modified from its usual form in that the relay 19 is added, the relay 19 being in series with the battery 15 and with the armature contacts of the relay 20, so that when the plug 18 is inserted in a ack as 16 and the relay 20 is energized to operate its armature, the relay 19 will be energized also; the armature contacts of the relay 19 are included in the talking conductors of the cord circuit between the battery 15 and the plug 17 so that when the relay 19 is not energized current may flow from the ring to the tip of the plug 17 but when the relay 19 is energized current may flow from the tip to the ring of the plug 17, or vice versa; the duty of the relay 19 therefore is to control the connections of the talking conductors of the plug 17 with reference to the battery of the cord circuit, in coiiperation with the condition of energization or deenergization of the relay 20 associated with the plug 18. The batteries 15 and 15 may be the same or may be similarly poled with reference to the earth, as shown.

The operation of the system is as follows, tracing through at first a. successful call originating at the substation telephone illustrated in Fig. 2: Upon taking the telephone receiver from the hook, the hook lever rises and carries with it the link 5; the arm 2 tends to rise, but is engaged by the escapement tooth 13 as shown in Fig. 5, the loose connection existing between the link 5 and the arm 2 permitting the link 5 to rise to its full height regardless of the stoppage of the arm 2, the parts 2, 5 and 13 therefore assuming respectively the positions illustrated in Fig. 5. By the movement of the hook lever, the hook switch is closed, and current flows from battery 15 through conductor 21, relay 22, jack 16, conductor 28, transmitter, hook switch, receiver, conductor 24, winding of core 9, conductor 25, winding of core 8, conductor 26, jack 16 and conductor 27 to the battery 15; this current energizes the relay 22 and by the closing of that relays armature contacts causes an illumination of the lamp 28 as a signal to the operator; the

current also energizes the cores 8 and'9, it flowing as described from line conductor 23 to line conductor 26, and the magnetization of the permanent magnet 10 shall be of such polarity that this current causes the core 8 to attract the armature 11, and if the current flowing at this time be of suflicient strength to cause the actuation of that armature the armature will be attracted into the position shown in Fig. 6, wherein the core 8 has attracted the armature 11, the escapement tooth 13 thus moving free of the motor arm 2 and the motor arm 2 moving upward to engage the tooth 14, which now retains the arm 2 at such a point in its possible travel that the pawl of the counting device has not yet passed the next tooth of the ratchet of the counting train. The operator having in charge the cord circuit of Fig. 4 now answers the call of the lamp 28 by inserting the plug 17 into the jack 16, establishing a circuit for current from the lower or free pole of battery 15 through the conductors of the cord pair and the contacts of the lower armature of the relay 19 to the ring of the plug 17, thence through the jack spring to the conductor 23 of the line, thence through the substation telephone and register magnet to the line conductor 26, thence through jack spring and tip of plug 17 and conductors of the cord circuit and the upper armature of relay 19 to the upper or grounded pole of the battery 15; thus current flows through the magnet of the registering device of Fig. 2 in the direction from line conductor 23 to line conductor 26, or in the same direction as before the insertion of the plug 17 into the jack 16; this current is of sufliclent strength to cause the attraction of the armature 11 into the position shown in Fig. 6, or to retain it in that position if it had been attracted by the current previously flowing in the line circuit. The ringing and listening keys of the cord circuit of Fig. 4 are omitted from the figure to simplify the drawing; by means of such keys as usually are provided for the operator, she takes the order of the patron calling, connects the plug 18 to the jack of the line desired, and rings the station called for.

Upon the answering of the station rung, the supervisory relay 20 is energized in the manner well understood in connection with the. cord circuit illustrated, and the energization of the relay 20 operates its armature to close its contacts and to cause the energization of relay 19; upon the energization of relay 19 its armatures move into their attracted positions and the circuit described. as being made up by the insertion of the plug 17 into the jack 16 is changed to permit current to flow from the lower or free pole of the battery 15 through the conductors of the cord circuit and the upper armature of relay 19 to the tip of the plug 17, thence through I thence through jack spring to the ring of the plug 17 and thence through the conductors of the cord circuit and the lowc armature of the relay 19 to the upper or grounded pole of the battery 15: thus the current after the answering of the called party llows through the polarized magnet of the regis tering device from line conductor 26 to line conductor 9%, or in a direction opposite that previously described, and thus in a direction to cause. an attraction between th armature 11 and the pole 9 of the polarized magnet. rather than the pole 8 as previously exist ing; this causes the reversal of th v armature 11 from the position illustrated in Fig. (3 to the position illustrated in Fig. T; by this re versal of the armature .11, the escapement tooth l t moves free of the end of the motor arm 2 and the motor arm is permitted to move to its full limit of travel as illustrated in Fig. 7, the pawl. of the counting device now passing beyond the next tooth in order of the ratchet wheel of the counting train: this is the position held by the registering device during conversation. Upon hanging up the receiver at the calling substation telephone, the magnet of the registering device is deenergized and its arn'iature returns to its normal. central position by reason of the centering springs, and the arm 2 is pulled downward to its lowest position by the link moving with the hook lever. the entire apparatus returning to the position of rest illustrated in Fig. with the exception of the wheels of the counting train, which. having been engaged and moved by the downward movement of the pawl of the device now stand in their next succeeding position, recording one count, as illustrated by the variation in the pointers of Fig. 8 as compared with the pointers of the other figures; thus one successful connection has been registered upon the counting train l by the above described operation of the associated telephone apparatus. As the arm 2 passed downward. the triangular projection 7 en gaged the escapement"13 and l t and pushed them aside successively that the end of the arm 2 might pass into its position of rest.

lf the called telephone patron should operate his hook switch. the armature .11 would swing from one position to the other, but this would not a lfoct the moto arm 2 in the position shown in Fig. '7: if the calling telephone patron should operate his hook lever before the operate answers, the motor arm 2 would take alternatively positions illustrated in Figs. 5 and 2 if the line current were not strong enough to operate the a ramture 11, or would take alternatively the positions illustrated in Figs. 6 and 9. if the line current were strong enough to operate the armature '11, the alternative positions of the arm 2 in either instance being inetl'ective upon the counting train '1 as in neither case does the pawl of the counting device rise high enough to engage the next succeeding tooth of the ratchet; if the calling telephone patron operate his hook lever to att 'act the attention of the operator after she has answered by inserting the plug 17 in the jack 16. the motor arm will take alternatively the positions illustrated in Figs. 6 and :2, such movement being inc'tl'ect'ive with reference to the dial wheels of the counting train 1; if the calling patron operate his hook lever to attract the attention of the telephone operator after the answering of the distant or called telephone, the motor arm 2 lirst will pass from the position illuslrated in Fig. T to the position illustrated in Fig. 2. registering the answering of the distant station as a successful connection, aml tlwreafter will take alternatively the positions illustrated in Figs. 8 and '2 if the distant telephone receiver still be oil? the hook. aml the positions illustrated in Figs. (3 and 2 if the distant telephone receiver be upon its hook, the movements of the motor arm in either instance being inet'lcctive upon the counting train 1 after the initial n'iovement downward, as the pawl of the device does not rise to a sullicient height to engage. the next ratchet tooth of the counting train, owing to the engagement of the motor arm either with the escapen'ient tooth 153 or with the escapement tooth l-l. Such an operation of the escapement device puts the registering device as a whole in condition to registt again for the succeeding call when a calling patron operates his hook lever to attract the attention of the central ollice o1 )erator to obtain another connection.

Considering unsuccessful calls: If the operator had not answered the call by plugging into the jack to, the motor arm would have taken alternately positions illustrated in l igs. 2 and F) or l igs. 2 and (3, depending upon, the strength of the line current, and in neither instance would a connection have been recorded upon the counting train of the registering device. If the operator upon answering had found the called line busy and had not inserted the calling plug 13 into a jack, the motor arm 2 would have taken alternately the positions illustrated in Figs. 2 aml t, and no call would have been recorded upon the counting train because of no connection having been obtained. ll the operator had connected the cord circuit with the called line and the substation telephone upon the called line had not answered the ring, the relay 20 would not have been energized and the relay 1t) would not have been energized, therefore the current in the line of the calling substation telephone would not have been reversed and the armature 11 would have retained continuously the position illustrated in Fig. 6, and when after waiting a reasonable time for the answering of the called station the calling station had its receiver restored to the hook the motor arm 2 would return to the position illustrated in Fig. 2 without having advanced the pawl of the counting train to a sutlicient height to engage the next succeeding ratchet tooth and therefore without having recorded a connection upon the counting train.

If the calling station were upon a party line and the party line were already in use by some other station upon that line at the time the receiver of the calling station here illustrated was removed from the hook, the line being in condition of conversation with the distant station and the relay 19 of the connecting cord circuit therefore being energized, the armature of the registering device would immediately take the position illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8, but as the armature 11 had not taken preliminarily the position illustrated in Fig. 6 to permit the motor arm 2 to pass escapement tooth 13, the motor arm 2 would engage escapement tooth 13 and would be held in the position illustrated in Fig. 8 thus effecting no registration when the telephone at the calling station is hung up; if, however, the called party had not responded, the position taken by all parts would be that shown by Fig. 6, and the second party of the calling party line coming upon the line and learning that the line already is in use may hang up his receiver and restore all parts of his equipment to the positions illustrated in Fig. 2 without having recorded a connection upon the counting train of his registering device.

By the insertion of a ringing plug as 18 into a jack as 16 the current through the polarized magnet of the registering device will flow in but one direction, thus not permitting registration by the device regardless of which direction such current may have. The adjustment of the magnet, armature and tensions of the registering device shall be such that ringing current from the central ollice which perchance may pass through the helices of that magnet will not be operative upon the armature of the magnet.

It sometimes is desired by the telephone company to give free service for certain calls or classes of calls, such as calls for the telephone companys oflices, for certain newspaper otlices, for fire and police departments, or from certain drug stores or public telephones for certain doctors oflices, etc, and this may be accomplished with my system of registering connections by the use of a cord circuit from which the relay 19 is omitted thus avoiding (when by special intent the operator uses that specialized cord circuit) that reversal of the current upon the calling line which effects registration.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. In a connection-registering device for telephones, a counting train with pawl and ratchet, a motor arm for said pawl to which said pawl is pivotally attached, an electromagnet with armature, and escapement teeth on said armature whereby the movement of said motor arm is controlled, substantially as described.

2. In a connection-registering device for telephones, a counting train with ratchet and pawl, a motor arm for said pawl, a polarized electromagnet, and an escapement associated with the armature of said electromagnet whereby said motor arm is controlled, substantially as described.

3. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a motor arm adapted to operate said counting train when restored from its extreme alternative position, an electromagnet adapted to hold said motor arm in an intermediate position between its normal and alternative positions, and means associated with the telephone hook lever for restoring said motor arm, substantially as described.

at. In a connectionregistering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a motor arm adapted to operate said counting train when restored from its eX- treme alternative posltion, an electromagnet adapted to hold said motor arm in one of a plurality of intermediate positions between its normal and its extreme alternative positions, and means associated with the telephone hook lever for restoring said motor arm, substantially as described.

5. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a pawl adapted to operate said counting train when moving from one of its eX- treme positions to the other, an electromagnet adapted to hold said pawl in an intermediate position, and means associated with the telephone hook lever for restoring said pawl to one of its cXtreme positions when the hook lever is down, substantially as described.

6. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a pawl adapted to operate said counting train when moving from one of its eX- treme positions to the other, an electromagnetically controlled escapement adapted to hold said pawl in a plurality of intermediate positions alternatively, and means for restoring said pawl to that extreme position constituting its position of rest, substantially as described.

7 In a connection-registering device for telephones. the combination of a counting train, a pawl adapted to operate said counting train in moving from one of its extreme positions to the other, an electromagnetically controlled escapement adapted to hold said pawl in an intermediate position. and

means associated with the telephone hook lever for holding said pawl in one of its extreme positions when said lever is down, substantially as described.

8. In a connection-registering device tor telephones, the combination of a counting train with pawl and ratchet, a motor arm for said pawl. to which said pawl is attached, an electroniagnet with an armature having two extreme positions, and escapement teeth associated with said arn'iature whereby said motor arm may be held in alternative positions corresponding respectively to the extreme positions taken by the armature of said electromagnet, substantially as described.

9. In a connection-registoring device for telephones, the combination of a counting train with ratchet and pawl, a motor arm for said pawl, a polarized electromagnet with armature having two extreme positions, and an escapement associated with the armature of said electromagnet whereby said motor arm is caused to move from a preceding to a succeeding one of its successive positions, substantially as described.

10. In a connection-registeriug device for telephones, the combination of a counting); train with pawl and ratchet, a motor arm for said pawl to which said pawl is pivotally attached, an electromagnet with an armature having two extreme positions, an escapement associated with said armature whereby said motor arm may be held in alternative intermediate positions depending respectively upon the position assumed by the armature of said electromagnet, and a link connecting said motor arm with a moving part of the telephone equipment, substantially as described.

11. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train with ratchet and pawl, a motor arm for said pawl, a polarized electromagnet with an armature having two extreme positions, an escapement associated with the armature of said magnet whereby said motor arm is permitted to move from a preceding to a succeeding one of its successive positions, and means associated with a moving part of the telephone equipment associated with the connection-registering device for restoring said motor arm, substantially as described.

12. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a motor arm adapted to operate said counting train when restored from its extreme alternative position, a polarized electromagnet and armature controlling the motion of said motor arm from intermediate steps from its normal position by alternative positions of the armature, and means associated with the telephone hook lever for restoring said motor arm, substantially as described.

13. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a motor arm adapted to operate said counting train when restored from its extreme alternative position, a polarized magnet with armature adapted to hold said motor arm intermediate between its restored and alternative positions when said armature is in any one of its possible positions and said motor arm leaves its restored position, and means associated with the telephone hook lever for restoring said motor arm, substantially as described.

14. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a motor arm adapted to operate said counting train when restored from its extreme alternative position, a polarized elec tromagnet, and an escapement associated with the armature of said magnet and adapted to hold said motor arm in one of a plurality of intermediate positions between its normal and its extreme alternative position, and means for restoring said motor arm to normal, substantially as described.

15. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a motor arm adapted to operate said counting train when restored from its extreme alternative position, a polarized elec' tromagnet, and an escapement associated with the armature 0t said electromagnet and with said motor arm, said escapement being adapted to hold said motor arm in one of a plurality of positions intermediate between its normal and its extreme alternative positions when the armature of said polarized magnet retains an initial position, and adapted to permit the full movement of said motor arm consequent upon a predetermined sequence oi alternations of the armature of said magnet between the armatures extreme positions, substantially as described.

16. In a connection-registering device for telephones. the combination of a counting train, a pawl adapted to operate said counting train when restored from its extreme alternative position, a polarized electromagnet and armature controlling the movement oi said pawl in intermediate steps from its normal position by alternative positions of said armature. and mechanical means for restoring said pawl, substantially as described.

17. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a pawl adapted to operate said counting train when moving from one of its extreme posit-ions to the other, a polarized electromagnet and armature, an escapement associated with the armature of said electromagnet and controlling the movement of said pawl in one direction whereby the full travel of said pawl may be permitted by proper consecutive positions of the armature of said polarized electromagnet, and means associated with the telephone hook lever for moving said pawl in the other direction, substantially as described.

18. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a pawl adapted to operate said counting train when moving from one of its extreme positions to the other, a polarized electroinagnet and armature, and an escapement associated with the armature of said polarized electromagnet and controlling the movement'of said pawl in one direction whereby the full travel of said pawl may be permitted by proper consecutive positions of the armature of said polarized electromagnet, substantially as described.

19. In a connection-registering device for telephones, the combination of a counting train, a pawl adapted to operate said counting train, an electromagnet and armature, and an escapement associated with the armature of said electromagnet and controlling the movement of saidp'a-wl in one direction whereby the full travel of said pawl may be permitted by proper consecutive positions of the armature of said magnet, substantially as described.

20. In a connection-registering device for telephones, a counting train, a pawl driving said counting train, means for moving said pawl in one direction, and an electromagne'tically controlled escapement controlling movement of said pawl by steps in the reverse direction, substantially as described.

21. In a connection-registering device for telephones, a counting train, a pawl driving said counting train, a mechanical connection with a moving part of a substation telephone equipment for moving said pawl in one direction, and an electromagne'tically controlled escapement controlling movement of said pawl by steps in the reverse direction, substantially as described.

Signed by me, at Chicago, county of Cook and State of Illinois, in the presence of two witnesses.

DAVID S. HULFISH.

Witnesses HAZAEL C. PRADO, EVA A. GARLooK. 

